Free Hope for Us (Hope Series Book #3) by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle

some misplaced loyalty prevent them from succeeding?”
    “J, what would you do if you were them? You have Brent and Parker trying to secure their position, and two rookies trying to make the team. Maybe if you’d been around during OTAs they would be quicker to see what was going on, but you got here two weeks ago.”
    “Why did you pick a side so early?”
    “Well, because I’m the best wide receiver in the league.” He grinned. “I need a passing quarterback. It’s purely selfish.”
    “Modest, too.”
    “None of the greats are?”
    “Good point.”
    “Is this all about the guys?”
    “Oh, we’re sharing now?”
    “Listen, I’ll put up with whatever girly shit we need to if it gets my quarterback back in the game.”
    “You married? Have a girlfriend?”
    “Married? Are you serious? I’m twenty-two.” He grinned, “But, yeah, I have a girlfriend.”
    “How long you two been together?”
    “Four years.”
    I looked up surprised.
    “Yeah, I know,” he said and shrugged his shoulders. “Why?”
    “You can’t relate.”
    “Try me.”
    “You ever met someone who you wanted to be with and they wanted to be with you, but you still can’t find your way together.”
    “This is some serious romance novel type shit.”
    “Shut up." I swatted him on the shoulder. "I’m serious.”
    “We talking about the cutie with the kid.”
    “Carrington, yeah. We’ve known each other for eight years. We knew we wanted to be together from the first minute we meet, but I fucked up and it didn’t work out and even now, when nothing is preventing us from getting together, it’s still not happening.”
    “Have you asked?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean. Have you asked her to be your girl?”
    “It can’t be that simple.”
    “Wouldn’t it be funny if it was?” He stood with his hands on his hips grinning. “What’s the worst that could happen? She says no and then you’re no worse off.”
    “We’re not in elementary school. It’s a little more complicated than will you go steady with me.”
    “Yeah, of course, but it has to start with a decision, which is simple, and then you work out the complicated stuff after that.”
    I looked at him with wide eyes. His chest puffed up like he laid some wisdom on me.
    “You want to run some routes or you have more girly wisdom to impart on me?”
    “Yeah, that’s probably all you can handle for now. We’ll get into more in our next session.”
    He shoved the ball in my stomach. “Ugh.”
    He ran back to get his helmet and got set.
    “Hut.”
    Towson took off and ran straight down the sideline. I placed the ball in front of him, and he caught it in stride for a touchdown.
    It is simple.
     
    After practice, I had a few hours until curfew so I drove over to Carrington’s house. I should have called first, but I didn’t want to give her the chance to make an excuse or say no.
    I stood on the porch and rang the bell. She peeked around the corner and ducked back into the kitchen.
    She knows I saw her, right?
    A minute later, she came around the corner with a fake smiled plastered across her face and my heart dropped.
    This wasn’t easy, but all I had to do was ask her a question.
    “Hey,” she said as she opened the door.
    “Hi.”
    “What are you doing here?”
    “Uh, Jack here?” That wasn’t the right question.
    “No, he’s spending the night with a friend.”
    I ran my hands through my hair and looked to the right of the porch.
    “You want to come in?” She asked.
    “Sure.”
    She stepped back and I caught a whiff of tomato sauce coming from the kitchen.
    “You hungry?”
    “Yeah. It smells good.”
    “Well, you’ve had it before. My famous spaghetti.” She smiled and I felt relieved to discover she had good memories of us together.
    “I remember.” I followed her and sat on a stool near the counter and watched her finish making dinner.
    She rinsed the pasta and stirred the sauce and despite all we needed to talk about and all we